[harnhua]

We make a design platform for engineers, and as both founders have technical backgrounds, we talked with around 30-40 engineers (presumably our target customers) about our product before starting to code.

Turns out, feedback from friends was almost always positive and encouraging("Great ideas! Go for it!"), but we must have neglected to either ask people who aren't friends and family, or we didn't emphasize enough the question, "Will you pay for it and how much?" :)

Luckily, after spending 6 months making a beta, we got in touch with real customer leads, and found that while our product features are still relevant, we must position and market it differently to stand a chance.

So while there's still a long way to go, market validation is one of the things we should have done better.